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Pompeo admits CIA support for imperialist intervention

FORMER Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Pompeo has confirmed what many already knew — that US spooks have been working to remove democratically elected governments for decades.

The surprisingly honest admission was made by Mr Pompeo, now US Secretary of State, to an audience at a Texas University on April 15 when he revealed the agency trains operatives to “lie, cheat and steal.”

He was addressing delegates at the Why Diplomacy Matters conference, extolling the virtues of “military strength” by claiming it was intimately related to diplomacy.

Mr Pompeo hinted that US international relations were guided by the continued search for profit and the opening of new markets for capitalist exploitation.

“The truth is we have to compete in a global economy. The United States businesses need access to markets all across the world. President Trump is determined to open those markets for our products,” he said.  

He claimed that the US had “1,600 economic officers stationed all across the world” in a bid to “persuade” governments to open their markets to US private companies.

The CIA has long been accused of working covertly to support regime change and the overthrow of democratically elected governments that threaten US profits, particularly across Latin America.

Most famously the spy agency supported the so-called Chicago Boys who were central to the overthrow of Chilean leader Salvador Allende, who was shot dead on September 11 1973.

Recently declassified papers revealed the extent of the CIA-backed Operation Condor, which saw US supported dictators in South America torture, kill and forcibly disappear government opponents in the region in the 1970s.

An estimated 60,000 people were killed by the Latin American states in the clandestine operation, 30,000 in Argentina alone by the military junta that ruled between 1976 and 1983. 

At least 400,000 were rounded up and jailed during the operations. The CIA is now known to have trained and supported military and civilian personnel that were involved in the brutal oppression.

Despite this, Mr Pompeo lauded US global intervention, telling those gathered, to laughter: “When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. 

“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

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